S. Korea to permit public access to N. Korea's main newspaper

The unification ministry said Friday the government will take administrative steps to allow the public's easy access to the Rodong Sinmun, the main newspaper of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party. In South Korea, public access to North Korean media and publications, including the Rodong Sinmun, is denied as they are classified as "special materials" due to concerns that they include content praising and promoting North Korea. The unification ministry, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and other related government agencies held a consultative meeting earlier in the day to review ways to reclassify the Rodong Sinmun as "general materials," not as special ones under the spy agency's guidelines. The participants at the meeting shared a consensus on the reclassification of the North's daily and the government will take necessary administrative steps from next week for the access, the unification ministry said in a notice to the press. President Lee Jae Myung took issue with a ban on public access to the North's materials during last week's policy briefing by the unification ministry. L